Carter said, “We are really excited about this budget.” Carter said that state revenues, “Are historically great by all measures.” “The economy really is booming.” Carter said that state income tax revenues and sales tax revenues, which are earmarked for the education trust fund (ETF), are at all-time highs. The revenues funding the general fund, primarily insurance premium taxes,

Thursday, January 11, 2018, the Donald Trump Administration granted waivers to ten states (Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin) from the federal government to implement work requirements for able-bodied Medicaid recipients. Medicaid is an enormously expensive entitlement that costs both the states and the federal government billions of dollars. Republican Gubernatorial candidate Scott Dawson asked: “Why isn’t Alabama on this list?”

The 2018 Alabama Regular Legislative Session begins in just 11 days on Jan. 9, 2018, and this is an election year so formal major party qualifying begins on the same day. The elections mean that the session begins earlier than normal and will likely end even sooner so that incumbents can get back to their districts to campaign. There are a lot of issues facing the legislature, however.

While we are all in a nice, festive and warm mood from the holidays, it seems like a good time to ask an important question:

When did we become such jerks?

I’m willing to accept, if enough people tell me it’s true, that maybe I’m being naive with this question, that maybe we’ve always been a country that’s built on selfishness and greed and generally being a bunch of jackasses to each other.

As conversations continue about how to handle the deadly opioid crisis in America, the University of Alabama at Birmingham has established a program to assist women who are pregnant and addicted to opioids and other substance abuse disorders.

The program will offer patients routine prenatal care, treatment programs including opioid replacement therapy, help to navigating Medicaid, food and nutritional services, and other childcare and prenatal services.

“Sadly, Roy Moore’s refusal to support the CHIP heath care program, which provides health insurance coverage to more than 150,000 Alabama children, further demonstrates that he simply does not care about the people of this state,” Jones said. “He wants the government out of the health care business, which means endangering Medicare for our seniors. Now, he wants to hurt children too.”

Halloween is not here yet, and most people are just beginning their Christmas shopping list. That said, it is time to begin preparing for the 2018 Legislative Session. The 2018 Regular Session of the Alabama Legislature begins early this year so that the members can go out and campaign ahead of the June 5, 2018 major party primaries.

This Session begins on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018, and must end no later than Monday, April 23, 2018 at midnight. If both Houses pass both the Education (ETF) and State General Fund budgets, they can leave earlier than that.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General recently released a report detailing Alabama Medicaid’s failure to “adequately secure its Medicaid Management data and Information System (MMIS).” It also failed to “implement specific controls over its MMIS data and information system” and failed “to provide sufficient oversight” to ensure its vendor maintained security.

Thursday, the Alabama Democratic Party released a statement in which they said that, “The Cassidy-Graham-Heller-Johnson bill would sabotage our health care system, gut Medicaid, increase costs, and strip health care away from millions of Americans.”

“Democrats believe health care is a right, not a privilege,” Nancy Worley, chairwoman of the Alabama Democratic Party, said in a statement. “And as Republicans try to take health care away from working families, Alabamians will suffer under the Cassidy-Graham-Heller-Johnson bill. This harmful bill will end Medicaid as we know it, cancel tax credits that help families afford health insurance, and eliminate subsidies that reduce out-of-pocket costs for working families. Republicans need to listen to the Alabamians they represent and join Democrats in their efforts to improve our health care system.”

State Treasurer Young Boozer (R) announced the Enable Savings Plan Alabama’s participation in #ABLEtoSave Month. Enable Alabama joins the nationwide #ABLEtoSave Month campaign, spearheaded by the ABLE National Resource Center (ANRC), aims to educate individuals with disabilities, their families, financial institutions and the general public about ABLE accounts and the financial independence they provide to the disability community.